Dance With Me
by Good Morning and Good Night
Summary: When Jack flies with Wind, he doesn't just fly, he dances with it.


**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or realities (unless otherwise stated). I do not make money off of this.**

 **This doesn't have a prompt, just so you know.**

 **This is not betaed. If you see any mistakes, I would love for you to** ** _kindly_** **point them out.**

Jack's interactions with Wind are always a dance. It started with a step, a leap and then a drop that wasn't executed as well as hoped for but it was the beginning of a dance. One that Jack knew would take some time to understand and master. He learned it diligently, carefully, paying attention to Wind and how (she? he?) it reacted. He spoke to it, and though he couldn't understand its language, sometimes he had the feeling of knowing. And he kept dancing, one step in front of the other, perhaps a step back, some snow here and a cloud around his shoulders like a cape, like he was a prince dancing with an ethereal creature of the forest beyond all other beauty.

* * *

Wind was lonely, for all of its dances were often alone and was glad to finally have a partner in its whirlwind dance that nobody could even start to understand. Many spirits tried and failed and dropped to the ground because they stopped at the most inopportune moments. Some of the ones that possibly could dance with it didn't want to and it was only until a lake broke open and a boy with hair as white as snow _Snowflake, that's what I'll call him_ appeared from its icy depths. And he danced. Even when he dropped the first time he leaped into its embrace, he still laughed and danced like the world didn't matter and it was only them and nobody else.

They danced together through snow and rain and hail and sunshine and he did his job with the snow and occasionally played with the laughing mini-humans (children) that roamed the earth. Wind allowed it because even though he was the only partner that could and would dance with it, Snowflake could get lonely too, unable to understand Wind's language. And Wind simply watched the proceedings and counted down the hours and minutes until the children had to go inside and then danced some more with Snowflake, occasionally setting him on the branch of a tree to sleep - because even though spirits like him didn't need to sleep much, they still did occasionally.

* * *

Jack, though, could not dance perfectly, and whenever he stumbled, there was an unpredictable surge of his magic, sometimes pulling out fluffy snow (slow dance), sometimes ice (small quick hops), and once, in 1968, when he tripped and fell during a particularly crazy fandango, an entire blizzard came out of nowhere. And then the Easter Bunny came along and yelled at him even though it wasn't his fault and that was one of the only times Jack could hear Wind, and it yelled at Bunnymund, calling it a _senile Pooka_ , whatever that was, and said _that spirits could be children too_ and continued with _and you, as a Guardian_ (some idea here) _should protect children, not blame them for things that they could not stop_ and Jack was so mesmerized by Wind's voice that he didn't say anything, or do anything, only jerked in surprise when Wind picked him up in an uncharacteristic Lift that he once saw in an ice skating tournament.

And then when he had some time to get over hearing Wind shouting at Bunny, he cried, because somebody talked to him and it was to yell at him. He was glad that Wind let him down to play with the children, but they couldn't speak to him, see him or touch him. He cried for a few days and then picked up another dance with Wind, still sad but in control enough to dance with his only true friend, the one that protected him in the face of another spirit.

* * *

When Snowflake cried, Wind danced around him, trying to cheer him up with crazy moves and dances they hadn't even started yet, ones that Wind could sort of remember from when he wasn't a spirit and lived somewhere else. It didn't seem like it helped, but a few days later Snowflake could dance with it and so he did.

Wind stayed slow so that he could halfway pay attention to the dance and halfway think about something else. From then on, Wind tried its best to stay away from Senile Pooka and perhaps to other, kinder spirits that would speak with Jack and touch him in ways that it could not, give him hugs and pats on the back and other things friends did.

* * *

Peter Pan was a cool spirit, Jack found out, mainly because he was the first spirit that wasn't jealous of him being able to fly, to dance with the wind. Peter simply smiled and said a how do you do. They talked a little, but he had to be somewhere and flew away on fairy dust after telling Jack that he was always invited to play with him in Neverland.

Jack yelled to his departing form that he would take him up on that offer someday. And then realized that his shadow was missing, and yelled that to him too. He laughed when Peter yelled annoyedly into the sky that _he just wanted one flight where his shadow wasn't trying to run away from him_ and flew back the way he had originally came to try and find his stubborn shadow. Jack laughed heartily at that and when he continued to dance with Wind, he felt lighter and could keep up more with his master of dance.

He smiled widely and happily and looked up to see the blinking stars and laughed again at how these things happen.

Later on, when he was being dropped off to Burgess where he wanted to see his favorite hooligans for a pre-Easter snowdown (the kids - Jamie, Sophie, Pippa, Monty, Claude, Caleb and even Cupcake) he whispered a soft _Thank you_ to Wind, and laughed when it ruffled his snow white hair, turning his attention to the kids and what would become a free-for-all snowball fight.

* * *

 _You're welcome_ Wind whispered back and rewound the clock for when they would dance again and hoped beyond hope that he wouldn't shout at Rock In The Sky tonight (thus cutting their time shorter) and that the whispers from the other winds about Black Horses That Made Mini-Humans Scared appearing were false.

And then sighed when it wasn't and danced with its Snowflake as he tried to save the world with Senile Pooka and Winged Sister and Earthbound Star and Bandit King.

(It also got really mad at Fear Man for not keeping balance because that was his job and not Snowflake's or the others')


End file.
